Smart playground project: Govt schools get infra overhaul

Strap: 5 gymnasiums, 2 basketball courts and several indoor halls set-up

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 30

Carrying out its project of setting-up smart playgrounds in all government schools across the district, the government schools in Cherhrta, Verka, Mall Road, have received funds under the sports wing. Kuljinder Singh Malhi, district sports mentor, said the process of upgrading the sports facilities in government schools had begun last year. The schools have received a total of 37.51 lakhs under the smart playground development initiative.

“Each school has been given a specific required amount for sports development. Initially, we have spent Rs 80 lakhs for upgrading the gymnasiums in schools in Lopoke, Ajnala, Attari, Tarsika and senior secondary school in Mall Mandi, which are now completed. The gymnasiums are being used for regular practice and introduction of games to primary and senior secondary students. The current funding is for schools that have regular sports programme and offer student diet and other training facilities,” said Malhi.

GSSSS, Cherherta has received 14.06 lakh, GSSS, Mall road has received Rs 11.46 lakh, Verka GSSSS has received Rs 11.96 lakh. In addition to this, the schools in Kathunangal and Muradpura have received six lakhs each for sports development. “We have already set up 80 smart playgrounds across schools in district. Two state-of-art basketball courts and hockey turfs are also being developed under sports grants. Further process is on to set up handball and shooting range etc. as per the demand of the school and indoor halls for table tennis, carrom board, chess etc have already been completed. Efforts are also on to develop sports in the rural belt,” he said.

He said the financial assistance of panchayat and the SMC committee members could also be sought for this purpose as soon as possible. Notably, the annual sports grant for senior secondary schools and high schools amounts to Rs 25,000 per school, while the middle schools get Rs 10,000 as sports grant. These funds were suspended due to pandemic.